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CrockPot Hungarian Pot Roast with Sour Cream and Paprika Gravy

This fantastic Hungarian Pot Roast with Sour Cream and Paprika Gravy made in the crockpot tastes amazing for a low-carb meal, and this tasty pot roast is also Keto, low-glycemic, gluten-free and South Beach Diet friendly! Use the Recipes-by-Diet-Type Index to find more recipes like this one.

A few weeks ago I made this CrockPot Hungarian Pot Roast with Sour Cream and Paprika Gravy. I ate some and then made several little containers to take for lunches at school. Then I raved about how good it was at lunch every time I ate some. Since then, my co-workers have been more than patient about waiting for the recipe, so I'm glad I finally got around to posting it.

Of course the recipe has its origins in Goulash or Gulyas, a Hungarian dish I think I first heard about when The Frugal Gourmet used to make it on TV (ahem, quite a while ago!) There are as many variations of goulash as there are cooks making it, but the kind I've made the most always had pieces of beef, tomatoes, red peppers, onions, and plenty of paprika. A few years back I made Goulash Soup on the blog, but I'm surprised to realize I haven't shared a recipe for actual Hungarian Goulash. I'll get working on that, but in the meantime, get out your crockpot and make this pot roast!

I used a 2.5 pound rump roast, which I rubbed with a little bit of steak seasoning, and the browned well in olive oil before putting it in the crockpot.

Then I put in a bit more oil and added thick sliced onions and a generous amount of sweet paprika (plus an optional bit of sharp paprika if you'd like.) Saute until the onions are lightly browned.

Add the browned onions to the crockpot, putting them over and around the browned roast. I used a 3 1/2 quart crockpot for this recipe.

Then add roasted red pepper slices, canned tomatoes, and beef stock, which was reduced as it deglazed the pan the onions were browned in.

Trim any visible fat from rump roast, then rub roast on all sides with steak seasoning. Heat 2 tsp. olive oil in heavy frying pan, add roast and brown well on all sides. (Don't rush this step., it may take 15-20 minutes to get the roast nicely browned.) When roast is well-browned, place in crockpot.

While roast browns, peel onions and cut into slices at least 1/2 inch thick. Heat addditional 1 T olive oil in pan, then add onions and paprika and saute onions until lightly browned, turning often to brown all the onion slices. Put onions in crockpot on top of and around the roast. Add 2 cups beef stock to frying pan, scraping off any browned bits and simmering until beef stock is reduced to about 1 cup.

While onions brown and stock reduces, drain jar of roasted red peppers, then cut into lengthwise slices about 1/2 inch thick. Put sliced peppers and canned tomatoes into crockpot, seasoning with black pepper. When stock has reduced to about 1 cup, pour over top of crockpot ingredients.

Cook on high for about 4 hours, or until roast feels tender when pierced with a fork. When roast is tender, remove meat, let cool a few minutes, and then cut into thick slices. While meat cools enough to handle, strain liquid into frying pan (catching the vegetables) and simmer over medium high heat to reduce for gravy. Add sliced meat and vegetables back into crockpot and keep warm. When liquid has reduced by about half, whisk in sour cream. (Edit: A reader named Ned left the suggestion to add a small amount of the liquid to the sour cream and whisk together, then whisk that mixture back into the juice in the pan for easier combining without lumps. I think that sounds like a great idea.) Pour sour cream gravy back over meat and vegetables in crockpot and cook about 20-30 minutes more, or until heated through. Serve hot.

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The Frugal Gourmet sounds more like The Tasty Gourmet! We love Hungarian flavours and make goulash soup at least once a year. I think it's great that a cuisine can be based around the taste of peppers rather than just the heat.

To my best best knowledge, as my mother was Hungarian, you must use green pepper instead of red, and most important it "aint" Guyash without Caraway seeds, whole or freshly ground.And you don't have to use canned or peeled peppers. Just cut 1 or 2 fresh green peppers.

Anonymous, I'm not claiming that this recipe is Gulyas, or even that it's authentic Hungarian; just that it was inspired by the version of Hungarian Goulash that I saw The Frugal Gourmet make. I haven't been to Hungary myself, but I would love to go there and try the real thing.

I grew up in a Hungarian household, parents were "off the boat" and only cooked Hungarian. I can promise you a caraway seed never came into our house, never mind ending up in my mom's cooking. Also the world famous Hungarian paprika comes from red peppers and red peppers are common and acceptable in Hungarian recipes. So I can assure you anonymous missed the mark with their critique of this recipe.

I have just started South Beach Phase 1, and although I have the SB book and the SB cookbook, I don't think I can succeed without Kalyn's Kitchen. I would like to print out my favorite recipes so that I can bind them in a notebook, but I'm having no success at printing just the recipe. Nor am I abloe to click and drag the highlighted recipe to a folder from which I can print it out. Can anyone help? My diet depends on it!!!

Jayne, you will have to print the entire post to get the recipe. That's the way it's set up in my template to prevent having the sidebars and header print when someone prints the page (with "no print" tags.)

Thanks for the information, Kalyn. I hate to be such a bother, but is there a way to save your recipes in a "my favorites" location on your site? (Does it seem to you that I want you to do ALL the work for me?!) Anyway, it can be discouraging to try a new way of eating and cooking. Thanks for making it easier with your great recipes.

I have many many episodes of the Frugal Gourmet on tape...yes, old VHS tapes :) This sounds like an awesome crockpot recipe. Think that 12 hours on low would be comparable to the 4 hours on high? Or 8 hours on low?

I'm not sure why but Blogger isn't sending me the comments in the order people are writing them, so I apologize if it seems like I'm not responding. Every time I go to my dashboard I keep finding comments that haven't come to my e-mail.

Jayne, I don't have a way to save recipes in a folder on my blog, but I recommend using a free service called del.icio.us. I use it all the time and love it. It's a bookmarking system which lets you save anything you find on the web and put it into categories any way you'd like. Here is my del.icio.us account if you want to see what it's like. (I save a lot of things I never end up using, but it's still fun!)

Mrs. L., it depends completely on your crockpot. The newer ones cook a lot hotter, so if it's fairly new I'd say only 7-8 hours on low would be enough. I still have some of the very old "slow cooker" type of crockpots which could cook at least 12 hours without the food getting too done, but I think they're kind of a thing of the past.

One note: I have a new crockpot and attempted to cook this on low for 7 hours. Not enough time. I had to turn it on High for an additional 1.5-2 hours. So, maybe this is more of a 10-12 hour on low recipe.

Anonymous, that's amazing because my crockpot seems to me like it cooks too hot. I wish all the crockpot manufacturers would get together and make the temperatures standard. Anyway, very glad to hear you liked the recipe.

I LOVE your website! It has been an amazing resource for new dishes in our household. Even my 13 year old son is getting into what I have found on your website for dinner.

Can I suggest a "work around" for the printing issue. I click on the recipe heading and then hit "PRINT TO PDF." I then save the PDF version in a Recipe folder I have on my desktop--making sure I have checked the file name when I save it. It is very easy to print from the saved PDF version or just to keep the recipes organized on your computer.

Jean, glad to hear you are enjoying the blog. I'm not sure what you mean by "the printing issue?" You should be able to print a recipe without saving it like that? It does sound like a good way to organize your recipes though.

After I retire I'm hoping to add a feature where you can print only the recipe with no other text, stay tuned.

Had this cooking in the crock pot all day on low (10 hours) So good to come home to the aroma of this! Heck, I put it together last night and my husband was salivating just from the prep! Anyway, the roast was so tender I only needed a fork to cut it! We had to go somewhere right after dinner tonight so I didn't have time to reduce the broth and add sour cream, etc. So we just poured the broth over our beef. Then I saved the rest and am going to use it as a base in a cabbage/beef soup I will make later this week. That broth is so rich and delicious!!! Thank you for this recipe.

And coming from a family of teachers--good luck with your conferences!

This is indeed a delicious recipe (as are virtually all of your recipes that my wife and I have tried -- thanks for injecting some great variety into our dinner menus!)...

I'd also like to respond to the "printing only the recipe" question. In either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, use your mouse to highlight just the recipe section, then instead of clicking the print button, select File, Print from the menu, and then click on the "Selection" option and click OK. This prints only what you have highlighted on the page.

Thanks also for the advice about how to print just the recipe. Your method will definitely work, but I'm thinking about adding that feature after I'm retired. It's labor intensive (I would have to copy every recipe by hand) but I think people would like it. If I do convince myself to do it, I'll start with the newest recipes and work my way back. I'm guessing it will take a few months to get all the blog done, but I think people will like it.

hi! just made this yesterday and i thought it was amazing! the sour cream and paprika gravy was delicious:) going to be making your leftover roast beef italian stew tonight. just starting back on sb again and i'm so thankful to have your food blog to come to for fantastic, tasty & healthy recipes. thanks!! jennie:)

Lynne I haven't tried cooking it for a longer time on low like that, but I'd guess it would be okay unless your slow cooker is one of the ones that cooks quite hot. I wonder if the vegetables might get super soft, but if they did I think they still might be okay, just disintegrated into the sauce. (Love to hear how it works if you do try it.)

I just found you site thanks to Simply Recipes and love it. I have the pot roast in the crock pot right now and it smells so good. It's great to find a recipe for pot roast that is not the standard and I love anything Paprikash. I am using green pepper instead of the jarred red. I'm sure it will taste great. Thanks and I look forward to trying more of your recipes.

Thanks for reminding me about Beef Paprikash. Haven't made in a long time and I love it. I just put it on to cook in the pressure cooker and used the ingredients in your recipe. Smells delicious already.

I made this tonight and my partner of 35 years said it was the best Pot Roast I ever made and he was right. He has never been a big pot roast fan since his Mom's was always so tasteless. He always enjoyed my old recipe but asked me if I could please make it this way from now on! Thanks Kayln! BTW we have loved every recipe we have tried of your. Keep them coming!

This was delicious!!! I used a London broil which was on sale at my local grocery store and did not use the sharp paprika because I didn't have any and it was not available locally. I do want to try that though. It was so good. Usually, I make something on the weekend, often in the slow cooker, eat it a couple of times in the coming week and freeze extra portions. (I am cooking for one.) But this was so good I ate it every night til it was gone. Loved it!

I tried your recipe for dinner tonight and followed it as written with the exception of the timing. I cooked on low for about 8 hours. It was divine. Both my husband and I liked it a lot and even my very picky non-eating meat daughter (7 yrs) liked the flavor. Thank you! I'm sure we will make this a couple of times this winter.

Kayln: What a blessing I found your blog/website on Pinterest! I just started South Beach Diet for the 3-4th time and with your recipes, I will probably be able to stick to it and finally lose the 30 lbs I need to lose. Your Hungarian Beef w/ Paprika Sour Cream Gravy was fabulous. My 8 year old son had three helpings...left nothing for me to bring to work tomorrow :) Thank you for all your efforts to create these wonderful meals and for sharing them. Stephanie

Hey, I tried this last time, it was absolutely amazing, however i might've cooked it too long. I couldn't remove the meat without it falling apart. But it was still good!!! Was wondering - Instead of browning meat with pan in the beginning, would it work if I use a grill to brown meat instead? Any suggestions?

This was quite delicious! Very happy to have discovered your blog as I've just embarked (again) on Phase 1 and was in need of some interesting new flavor combinations to keep me on track. Many thanks, and I look forward to trying more of your recipes.

I am making this pot roast tonight. The house smells wonderful. I had a big jar of roasted red peppers from Costco to use up and this recipe is perfect. I also love paprika! I am not on South Beach diet but this is wonderful comfort food for a cold winter day here in Michigan. Thanks for sharing! P.S. I am making it in the oven.

The pot roast was delicious last night! In the future, I don't think I'll make the gravy. I didn't really think it was needed. The vegetable sauce was delicious! That will save me a few calories! : ) I am going to serve the leftovers with pasta tonight. Thank you! P.S. I have been making quite a few of your recipes this winter with great success!

I've had this recipe bookmarked for ages and finally got it on my menu for this week. My husband and I both LOVED it. Such delicious flavor. I used smoked paprika and a flat iron steak (my fave for low and slow cooking) and actually cooked it in my dutch oven instead of the crock pot. It turned out perfect.

Hi Kalyn. The last time I cooked this, it scorched and burned in the bottom of my crockpot. Is that because my in a newer version? How long would it take to cook it in a dutch oven in the oven. I may want to do this to avoid the "burn". Thanks

I'm not sure what would make it scorch in only four hours; I've made this in several different slow cookers and never had a problem like. You might cook a few hours on high and then turn to low if your slow cooker cooks hot. I don't have much experience with cooking things like this in the oven, but I'd use a really low temperature, maybe 325F and start checking after about 3 hours. Hope that helps!

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